In order to anticipate more clearly the response to the rhetorical question in verse 17, it may be useful to employ “Who were the people with whom God was angry for forty years?” There are, however, serious difficulties involved in the rhetorical questions found in verses 16, 17, and 18, for obviously the writer is not asking for information but is making emphatic statements by means of these rhetorical questions. In languages which do not employ such rhetorical questions, it may be necessary to use emphatic statements. For example, verse 17 may be rendered as “For forty years God was indeed angry with the people who sinned and who fell down dead in the desert.” Similar adaptations may be made in verses 16 and 18.

In quoting Psalm 95 in verses 9-10 (see discussion), the writer has separated for forty years from I was angry. Now, as he comments on the psalm, he brings them together and adds in support a quotation from Numbers 14.29. This shows that he has in mind not only Psalm 95 but also the Old Testament story to which it refers.

Who fell down dead brings out the meaning more clearly than Revised Standard Version‘s literal translation “whose bodies fell.” “Fall” does not mean merely “fall over”; destruction or death is implied, as in King James Version‘s “whose carcasses fell.” On desert, see discussion on Heb. 3.8.

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Letter of the Hebrews. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .